Before Thee Let the Unclean Thing Crawl
by Alixtii
Summary: Harmony turns to Amy for sanctuary, but receives a lesson on the true nature of power.


**Before Thee Let the Unclean Thing Crawl**

It was past twilight on Lunasdal, as Amy Madison hung up the coven's laundry, that she ran into one of her former classmates.

The fact that her classmate was dead didn't faze Amy in the least. Rather, it was that this particular dead classmate was found in this particular place that disturbed her.

"What are you doing here, Harmony?" Amy asked.

Harmony looked sheepish. "I sort of need your help. I kind of had a run-in with the Scoobies."

She made it sound so simple. "Every Wiccan on this planet could feel Willow go dark, Harm."

"That wasn't my fault, I swear!" Harmony insisted. "She had already gone brunette when she came to me!"

"And then you helped her."

"Well, yeah," Harmony agreed. "I wasn't about to say no to Miss Super-powered Wicca."

I'll show you a super-powered Wicca, Amy felt like saying. "And why should I help you, Harmony?"

"Because we're both evil?" Harmony attempted.

"I'm not evil," Amy answered. "Good and evil don't concern me. I'm only interested in power."

"Well if you put it that way, I'm just interested in blood."

"No, Harmony," Amy contradicted, "you are a vampire, a creature of pure—" She broke off in disgust. Why was she even bothering to argue metaphysics with a vampire?

"You have to help me," Harmony insisted. "If Buffy or Dawn or Kennedy—if any of them catch me, I'm—"

"So I have a choice between pissing off the Watcher's Council, which would be incredibly inconvenient for me and for the entire coven, and pissing you off, which I would enjoy tremendously. It's not exactly a hard choice, Harm." She turned away. "Now go before I immolate you with a word."

"Wait," Harmony said, and Amy turned back with the word _incidere_ on her lips. "I'm on sacred ground sanctified for the Goddess. I request sanctuary."

"A vampire requesting sanctuary on sacred ground? Give me a break."

"Come on, Amy! You can't refuse me just because I'm a vampire!"

"Watch me," Amy was about to say, but the words caught on her throat. As much as she hated to admit, Harmony was right: it was not up to Amy to refuse the Goddess' mercy.

_ "There are those in this world who are taught that the world is divided into the sacred and the profane, the raw and the cooked, the clean and unclean. They have not learn to see beyond these boundaries, and as such they are made slaves to these distinctions of language. Those schooled in the mysteries know that the sacred in its deepest essence is always profane, that black magic is always-already white magic. Blessed be she who takes part in the unity of all things, for she shall know true power. So mote it be."_

—From the notebooks of Catherine Madison

  
_"But beware, for she who desires power will become enslaved by that desire but she who gives up her desire to the Goddess will be given power over all men and women."_

—Marginalia, written in a different hand

  
It was three days before Dawn Summers arrived on the coven's doorstep. This surprised Amy; she had expected the Watcher to arrive within two. 

"I appreciate your need for vengeance," Amy said. "But I cannot deny sanctuary to one to whom the Goddess has given it, no matter how much I would like to."

"The Council will not rest until we have Harmony Kendall."

"Then don't rest," Amy answered simply. "But rest assured, if you move against this coven, you'll find every Wiccan on the planet against you. The Goddess is a powerful ally, Dawn; trust me when I say that you don't want Her as an enemy." Amy paused, then looked the younger woman straight in the eyes. "There's nothing you can do Harmony that will change what happened to Willow."

"_You_ don't get to lecture us on vengeance," Dawn answered quickly. "You'll regret this decision, Amy."

Amy nodded. "Oh, believe me, I already do."

_Only in silence the word,  
only in dark the light,  
only in dying life:  
bright the hawk's flight  
on the empty sky._

—The Creation of Éa

  
It was Samhain before Harmony's soulless nature got the better of her; frankly, Amy was shocked the vampire lasted that long. Still, she had become so accustomed to seeing Harmony passively accepting the restrictions of the coven that when she came across Harmony beating the crap out of her own bed she couldn't help being surprised. The bed was quickly in pieces, of course, destroyed by the vampire's superhuman strength. Harmony beat her fists against the mattress which had already bust open, unrelenting in her attack. The vampire was sobbing and Amy could see the tears which streaked her face. Amy just stood there, witnessing the destruction og the furniture. 

Harmony, of course, knew she was there. "I can't take it anymore, Amy," she said. "I don't know how you do it."

"I do it because I have to do it," Amy answered. "I know the lust for power, remember how it felt to have dark magicks racing through me. There's not a day that passes when I don't crave that power."

"But why?" asked Harmony. "Ehy even bother when you can snap your fingers and have whatever you want? You could take over the world if you wanted to."

"That's what Willow thought," pointed out Amy. "Most likely I'd just end up like Willow did, facing a Slayer who is standing on the other side of an enchanted sword. But even if I could do it, do you think it would make me happier? Do you think I would ever be satisfied?

"Let's imagine that I destroy the Council, wipe out Althanea and the Devon coven and all the other Wiccans who might be able to rise up against me, kill the child who even now grows inside Buffy Summers' womb. I enslave every man, woman, and child on the planet and force them to do my will. Then what? Do I go on to the next dimension?" Amy sighed, a sad sound escaping from her lips. "Those desires know no bounds, Harm."

"But you still do magic," Harmony argued, "even black magic. I've seen you."

"And so you have," admitted Amy. She took a deep breath, then raised a hand. "Goddess Hecate, work thy will," she said and, in a moment, her eyes were black. "_Renevere_," she ordered, and the broken bed suddenly rose up from the pile of jumbled pieces and reassembled itself. "_Procella tempestas_," she added and there was a crack of thunder outside as the wind began to pick up, rattling the windows. She said "_Aperiere_" and suddenly Harmony stood before her completely naked, her clothes vanished.

"The way of the Goddess is the path to true power," said Amy, the color of her eyes quickly returning to normal, "power over people, over the elements, over the very fabric of space and time itself, and that requires control even of one's desire. You must win the victory over yourself."

Amy reached out with her hand and suddenly there was a knife within it. "But that does not mean the Goddess does not allow us our small pleasures," she told the now-naked Harmony. She ran the knife against her palm, slicing smoothly into the flesh, then extended it to Harmony who took eagerly, drinking Amy's blood. When a moment had passed, Amy pulled back her hand and healed it with a thought.

She placed the hand aside Harmony's cheek, letting it slide down the vampire's face until only the tops of her fingers were facing Harmony's jaw. Then, without a word—for some magic requires no words—she pushed Harmony down onto the now re-made bed and, like a true daughter of Hecate, came to experience power.


End file.
